


hours of horror, black and white edition

by ArdenSkyeHolmes221



Series: 13 nights of halloween [3]
Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Best Friends, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Mild Language, Post-Endgame, Sassy Peter Parker, Some Humor, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony lives, horror movies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-12-09 05:24:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20989565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArdenSkyeHolmes221/pseuds/ArdenSkyeHolmes221
Summary: “That’s not—” he’s instantly protesting. “You’re a liar! A dirty, dirty liar, Miss Potts.”“I thought our philosophy is we aren’t going to lie to our children?”“It is! Yet here you are spilling all my secrets faster than—”Pepper puts out her palm, silencing him. “Please refrain from pop culture references, there’s only so much I can take in a day.”“Aah, Pepper; you’re no fun. I had a hunch he was gonna quote something from Buzzfeed Unsolved.” his kid pouts.***Or, an October tradition where Peter and Ned and MJ watch old horror films and it's the Starks' turn to host





	hours of horror, black and white edition

Tony shifts in his seat, mindful not to jostle Morgan’s head seeing as she has fallen asleep against his side, and stretches out as much as he is able. Then his right shoulder tighten up and he hisses under his breath.

No outward display of concern pops up.

Interest piqued, he glances out the corner of his eye to figure out why Pete isn’t fussing over him like a clucking mother hen. His kid’s anxiety over Tony’s recovery has been as bad as Pepper’s and Rhodey’s, though the latter two’s have lessened somewhat within the last six weeks. Peter’s, unfortunately, seems to have progressively worsened and it eats at Tony. So the fact that Tony made a noise of discontentment and Peter didn’t automatically pounce on him like a lion on an antelope is disconcerting: Pete’s either asleep or ignoring him. He peeks at Pete, hoping to see him out cold like his sister, and instead finds Peter not riveted to the movie they are watching and instead texting rather furiously on his phone.

A tiny sliver of Tony is affronted, though it immediately floods him with guilt. His kid’s seventeen and could be doing worse things than hanging out at a cabin upstate on a Friday night with his family.

Still doesn’t keep Tony from attempting to swipe the phone out of Peter’s hands, though.

“Hey.”

“What’s so important that takes your attention away from _Pixar’s _latest and greatest, hmm?”

Peter keeps tapping away at his screen.

Tony glowers at him.

“Stop pouting.”

He sputters, completely at a loss for words.

Finally, _blessedly _and_ thankfully, _his kid puts down his phone and offers Tony a sheepish, barely there smile. Honestly it is more an unticking of one corner of his mouth more than anything else. Main lights are off and Tony can’t really decipher Pete’s expression with the flashing colors from the television.

“Sorry, group chat.” His kid offers in vague explanation.

Tony keeps being petulant, “Guess you’re lucky your sister’s asleep.” he sniffs at the end and turns back to face the tv, though the movie no longer has his attention.

“You could just ask me, y’know.”

It’s always so simple to his kid. Guilt swirls in his gut before Tony shifts around to face Peter, bringing Morgan with him so she doesn’t contort like a pretzel, no matter if she’s got the kiddie bones to do it; makes Tony queasy. 

“Ya know, if you wanted to stay in the city with your friends this weekend, all you had to do was say, kiddo.” he says softly.

An undecipherable expression flits across Peter’s face so quickly Tony does not have any time to make heads or tails of it before Peter objects, “That’s not it! I like coming out here. Really, Tony; I don’t give up my weekends with you guys for anything.”

“I’m sorry—” he apologizes in the hopes to soothe Peter’s rising anxiety.

Pepper walks back in with fresh popcorn and tea for herself, pausing behind the sofa when she notes the tension rolling off the two of them.

“Everything good?” she questions, slipping on the other side of Peter.

Tony shrugs.

“Perfect,” his kid answers right away, “I was just about to ask you guys something though.”

Tony raises his eyebrow, leveling a lost expression at his wife and wiping it away before Peter turns away from Pepper and back to him. “We’re all ears, kid.”

“I was texting Ned and MJ.” Peter prefaces.

Normally Tony would open his mouth about now and point out the kid hasn’t asked any questions yet, though a pointed look from his wife keeps Tony quiet.

Instead, Peter finishes, “We’re having a black and white horror movie marathon.” 

“You’re having a _what?”_

Pepper rolls her eyes at his surprise. Then she turns her attention to their pseudo-adopted son and asks, “When are you guys having it?”

“Well, that’s the thing,” Pete rubs the back of his neck, a shy smile curling his lips, “we’ve planned it for two weekends out.”

Tony opens his mouth.

Peter talks right over him. “My question is if it’s alright if they come here and we have the marathon here?”

Pepper softens and answers before Tony has the opportunity, “Honey, you know you don’t have to ask. Our house is as much yours at this point. They are more than welcome.”

“What she said, kiddo,” he nods after Peter glances over for his approval. It warms Tony’s heart to see because it isn’t an often occurring incident much nowadays: Peter is growing up and becoming more self-assured. “I have to ask: why black and white horror films? Aren’t there better slasher movies out now?”

“For Halloween. It’s kinda our little tradition. And seeing as how we’ll most likely all be at three different schools this time next year, we _have _to keep up the tradition.”

“Okay. And we’re having it at my house because…?”

“Tony!” scolds Pepper.

Peter rolls his eyes, not fazed by the antics. “Because it’s my weekend to be here. And I already told them we’d have it here. And I didn’t wanna reschedule again.” he sucks in a quick breath before rattling on, “We’ll have it after Mo goes to bed so you don’t have to worry about he seeing anything spooky! Ned usually hosts, but his sister’s wedding rehearsal is that weekend or something and his mom let him out of it so long as he was with me or something, I don’t remember because honestly as soon as he said that he got out of rehearsal I stopped listening.”

Tony make a noise, suppressing his urge to laugh wildly, though he doesn’t wanna wake up Morgan.

“You and Pepper are more than welcome to join us if you’d like.”

“Pepper’s not a fan of horror movies.”

“Not true, Peter. _Tony _isn’t allowed to watch them.”

“Why?” Peter’s head swivels toward Tony. “I didn’t know you were scared of old black and white films, Tony.”

“I’m not—”

“Oh, he’s not,” there’s an evil edge of glee in his wife’s tone. “Any time he watches them, though, he has about two weeks straight where he thinks he’s an evil genius and starts concocting questionable machinery.”

“That’s not—” he’s instantly protesting. “You’re a liar! A dirty, dirty liar, Miss Potts.”

“I thought our philosophy is we aren’t going to lie to our children?”

“It _is! _Yet here you are _spilling _all my secrets faster than—”

Pepper puts out her palm, silencing him. “Please refrain from pop culture references, there’s only so much I can take in a day.”

“Aah, Pepper; you’re no fun. I had a hunch he was gonna quote something from _Buzzfeed Unsolved.” _his kid pouts.

“I was.” 

_“See!”_

“My word is law and I say he must refrain.”

“Gotta refrain or I’m sleeping on the couch tonight. Better yet: I’ll sleep in your room tonight and _you _can sleep on the couch if you wanna hear what I was gonna say so bad.”

“That’s not what the law says.”

“It’s what _I _say, though.”

“It’s gotta count for something; you married the man.” 

Pepper rolls her eyes. Gracefully, she stands up and sets down her tea mug. “I’m off to bed,” she informs them. As she kisses Peter’s forehead she says, “Ned and Michelle are more than welcome to come over next time you’re here.” Then to Tony, “You behave.” Before either have a chance to reply, his wife has scooped up Morgan from Tony’s hold and she exits stage left.

Tony and Peter blink at the abrupt departure. Then they shrug it off.

***

“Say goodnight to your brother and his friends, baby girl; it’s time for little munchkins’ bedtime.” Tony instructs Morgan, standing behind the sofa, arms crossed, and surveying the scene on the floor. 

Morgan is sitting on Ned’s lap, playing some made-up card game the three friends concocted. Her head tips back as she whines,

“Daaaaaad. We’re in the middle of a game!”

“You’ve already had your warning for closing curtains fifteen minutes ago.”

“Not fair! I can’t tell time.”

Peter sniffles rather pitifully, pulling Morgan’s attention. “I think I’m running low on snuggles. Does anyone— anyone wanna help me out?”

Tony rolls his eyes at the dramatics, though it does nothing to diminish his wide grin as Morgan springs out of Ned’s lap and catapults herself right into Peter’s chest. His kids tumble to the floor in a heap of flailing limbs and rambunctious giggles.

“Oof.”

“Will you read me a story, Petey?”

“And leave Ned and MJ down here all alone?”

“…they could join us.”

Peter pauses, craning his neck off the floor to stare first at Michelle and then Ned.

Tony cuts in, “They’ve got scary movies they plan on watching, duckling.” and because he knows this may end in tears, he continues, “They think they’re too good for Disney movies tonight. And Mom says it’s bedtime at 8 o’clock sharp and you don’t wanna get me in trouble for putting you down at 8:05 do you?”

Morgan sits up on Peter’s chest and scrunches up her nose, completing ignoring her father. “Why d’you wanna watch scary movies?”

“‘Cause I think it’s fun.”

“It’s tradition,” MJ chimes in.

“Because MJ is scary, Morgan, and we do whatever she says.”

Michelle smirks, Peter sputters, and Tony laughs at the teenagers. While his daughter is distracted, Tony swoops down and lifts Morgan up beneath her armpits. She shrieks,

“But I didn’t give kissies!”

Simultaneously Tony bends down so Morgan can give her brother a kiss while Peter whips forward. Tony sees what is going to happen: so he maneuvers Morgan out of the way and, coincidentally, Tony and Peter conk heads.

“Way to go, dorks.” Michelle intones dryly.

Cherry on top of the embarrassment sundae is Ned’s snorted laugh of, “Classic.”

At least Peter turns bright red with mortification.

Tony makes a face at Peter, who in turn reddens a few more shades before a tentative smile blossoms. He blows a raspberry as added encouragement and a tiny giggle emerges as his reward. Crisis averted. Dad win in the bag.

Morgan reaches for her brother’s neck, hangs halfway off Tony’s hip, as she presses a long kiss first to Peter’s cheek and waits for hers in return. It is as equally long, several times louder, and Peter smacks his lips as he pulls away. Afterwards, she give Ned and MJ high fives, and sneaks another kiss from Peter. Then they can finally head up the stairs. 

“Stay out of the liquor cabinet!” he tosses over his shoulder, bumping Morgan further up his hip.

“You don’t have a liquor cabinet; you have a wine cellar!”

“Same thing!”

“Are you coming back down?”

“Only if I don’t fall asleep.”

“Old man!”

Tony scoffs at the rebuttal much to his daughter’s unending amusement.

Twenty-odd minutes later, Tony’s wandering back down the staircase. The lower floor of his house is pitched in darkness minus the flickering of the television. He redirects into the kitchen to finish packing away leftovers and cleaning the dishes. Pepper had an emergency meeting in the city earlier this afternoon, so the evening’s kind of gotten away from him. (And by ‘getting away from him’ he means that he spent all his time with Morgan, Peter, and his little nerd friends; it’s why he wants to allow the teenagers time to themselves. He can play it cool.)

He grabs salt and vinegar chips, chocolate peanut butter cups, and popcorn bags and sets them out on the counter for when the kids come back for refills. Then he makes a glass of water, forgoing ice in hopes he can sneak back upstairs and settle in bed.

No such luck, of course.

“Tony?”

He pauses with his hand on the banister at Pete’s soft call of his name. 

Because he’s a sucker for his kids, Tony turns around and pads into the family room. All three teens are huddle on the floor, individually wrapped in a throw blanket, or in Peter’s case his comforter off his bed, and it takes Tony a second to process the scene. Before he can fully process it, however, Michelle pipes up,

“I know. They do this every year.”

Tony blinks at the sight of Ned nudged up against Michelle’s left side and his free hand reaching behind her for Peter’s. “Huh.”

Not wishing to loiter in his own home, Tony parks it on the sofa and deposits the glass on a coaster on the end table. Peter immediately wiggles backwards until his back nestles against Tony’s shins. His smirk is lost to the darkness, comprehension dawning like a gentle sunrise.

Tony learns fairly quickly that Ned and Peter aren’t cut out of horror films. He has essentially always had this knowledge on his kid and it’s a simple deductive leap on Ned. He puts it together that Michelle is the culprit behind this tradition and for whatever reason both guys continue to agree with it. Whatever fifties film is on captures Michelle’s full attention, causes Ned to hyperventilate that Tony mentally checks for an inhaler just in case as Ned’s arms flail, while Peter jerks back into Tony’s legs frequently and Tony’s just waiting for the kid to hide in the couch. Seems Ned called dibs on Michelle first and the one year they attempted to share her, both guys ended up with bloody noses.

“I have my limits,” the young woman shrugs. “And if a little bit of hand holding is all it takes in order for me to watch what I wanna what? So be it.” 

Seems to be every single time Michelle talks, Tony understands why his wife is fond of the young woman: it’s that ambitious attitude they share.

Tony settles into the sofa, hoping his legs don’t get all tingly, and pulls out his cell phone. He dims the brightness and starts texting Pepper, who is on a late flight back home, to pass the time. He isn’t interested in the movie, though a portion of his attention is vaguely keeping up with it. He doesn’t realize how much time has passed. Next time he glances at the tv screen he notes that a new movie has been started and he smells buttery popcorn.

With a quick wiggle of his right fingers to calm the late night phantom itches, he leans forward and reaches for Peter’s shoulder.

Peter promptly screeches, torso jerking back into Tony’s legs and arms spazzing out as if he’d been electrocuted. Because Peter screeches, Ned echoes him.

Michelle’s dark eyes find Tony’s and the two share a fast moment of commiseration, a silent _what can you do?_ shrug.

“Whoa, hey, hi, just me,” soothes Tony, flexing both hands atop his kid’s shoulders, “didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Holy shit,” Peter grouses, one hand on his chest reminiscing a startled Regency housewife, “you scared the crap out of me.”

“Dude,” is Ned’s agreement.

Michelle rolls her eyes, shoves another handful of popcorn into her mouth, and turns back to the movie.

“Sorry,” he apologizes. “Just wanted to see if you wanted anything before I went up to bed.”

Peter scrunches up his nose, tilting his head backwards until it rests on Tony’s knees, his expression going wonky at the new angle. “You can’t leave me after scaring me to death.”

“Good thing you’re very much alive then, isn’t it?”

Peter huffs. Then, he rights his posture, gathers his mountain pile of protective blankets, and hightails his ass to the couch. Right next to Tony and jostles him during the transfer. Both know the drill, so while Peter situates his comforter just so, Tony tugs out a throw pillow smooshed into his side and the couch then places it on his lap, where Peter promptly drops his noggin and curls up tight.

His kid makes a pleased little humming noise.

“Still scared?” teases Tony.

“Hmmm, no. Never scared when I’ve got you around.”

Tony positively _melts._

When Pepper comes home two and a half hours later, she finds Ned asleep in front of Michelle and snoring, Peter curled up against Tony and out like light, while Michelle and Tony are watching another old film. Tony grins at her late arrival, stretching out his neck for a hello kiss.

“New plans for massive chaos?” she softly inquires against his lips.

“Yep,” he pops the consonant. “Michelle’s in charge.”

“Initiative: World Domination begins tomorrow at noon,” Michelle offers Pepper the information. “You’re more than welcome to join us; we need a co-chairperson.”

“Someone’s gotta keep you two from turning evil, so count me in.” Then Peter sucks in a deep breath and draws his wife’s attention. “Alright, so we both know this one,” she nods down at their pseudo-adoptive son, “would do it in my place. All the same, I’ve got experience on my side and I’m fantastic at redirection with the media. Nobody will know what happened.”

**Author's Note:**

> come scream with me on [tumblr](https://ardenskyedarcy221b.tumblr.com) about the spooky season!


End file.
